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Boulder's Caffeine Fix Map

Boulder's Caffeine Fix MapLet's face it, Boulderites need their caffeine fix. Here's a map for local and visitors alike to discover some of the city's (and surrounding town's) best places to find a good cup of java.

June 18, 2008

Boulder's Metzger Associates launched a new blog today called DNC After Dark, a great idea to offer up dining and entertainment tips for delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Denver this August.

I just led a discussion today at the Boulder Press Club about how traditional media must continue to adopt, innovate or even acquire new media tools if they are going to compete with the social networking wave capturing advertising dollars.

John Metzger actually has been on the new media forefront for PR and marketing companies, adding a digital side to his business several years ago and telling business clients how they, too, must be thinking of creating corporate blogs, better Web sites, etc.

With all of the national attention that will be focused on the DNC, Metzger's blog is not only a good idea for the delegates themselves, but, of course, a good way to get the Metzger name out to businesses.

The site just launched, and right now has links to only about six bars and 16 restaurants, but those numbers should climb pretty fast as word gets out.

The site also has a link to another Metzger blog, Media in the New Millennium, from the director of Metzger's New Media Practice. There you can read about plans for the New Media Summit at the St. Julien Hotel in downtown Boulder on Monday, July 14.

June 11, 2008

Cool, rainy weather in Oregon kept the dry fly hatch away from us, but an early June trip to Sand Creek Ranch on the Upper Williamson River was a great fly-fishing adventure.

This photo is actually the view from the deck of the guest lodge on the 800-acre private ranch, with a good 3.5 miles of fishing for the Redband Rainbow Trout, native to the river, as well as some of the largest Brook Trout to be caught in the lower 48.

Our guide Steve Koon, also the caretaker for the ranch, told us before we arrived to bring our sinking tip lines, and indeed, our best fish were caught in the river's deeper and deep-cut banks, where the trout avoided the sharp-eyed ospreys and blue heron.

Although there were a few scattered hatches along the river, the famed Black Drake hatch was not yet on, so we tossed a variety of weighted wet flies, with all of us catching trout from 15 to 22 inches. For most of us, a 16 to 17-inch Brookie was usually the largest any of us had ever landed.

Six of us fished the river, usually with half of us heading upstream, the other half down. There was no shortage of good water to fish over the four days we were on the river.

I'd recommend Sand Creek Ranch to anyone interested in an Oregon wilderness setting. Coyotes yelped, sandhill cranes make a rukkus and the birdlife and waterfowl were incredible. Night hawks dove on the river when bugs were hatching, and on our last day, a bald eagle settled on a tree outside our lodge. The marshy cattails along the banks of the river are excellent nesting grounds for many species of ducks, including mallards, merganser diving ducks and others. A birdwatcher could be totally satisfied here without ever picking up a fishing rod.

For more photos from our trip, click on the photo to get to my Flickr site.